Flower Shows and Artistic Design

January 7, 2022

Chairman Penny Bryan,The Hunting Creek Garden Club

The 54th Annual Lily Show was hosted by Rivanna Garden Club on June 19-20, 1996, at UVA Alumni Hall. Carolyn Wilcox and Cecila Ochs co-chaired the show, “Following the Green Arrow,” and reported 217 lily specimen exhibits and eleven InterClub collections. The horticulture workroom ran “dangerously low on gin bottles.” Artistic Design classes featured GCV’s historic properties Point of Honor, Prestwould Plantation, Wilton, Kenmore, and Oatlands.

1996 Flower Arranging and Judging School was held September 17-18 at the Woman’s Club in Richmond. The focus was “In the Oriental Manner,” taught by Madge Overly, a recognized teacher from the Sogetsu School.

The 1996 Rose Show, “Audrey Hepburn: A Retrospective” was hosted by the Hampton Roads Garden Club at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News on September 25-26. The show was chaired by G.G. Buxton, Nancy Horgan and Diane Koun. “Big gun” horticulture exhibitors from the Colonial District of the American Rose Society graced the show with gorgeous blooms and took the awards in the Court of Honor. Altogether, 390 horticulture stems were exhibited and 75 floral arrangements with a total of 123 exhibitors.

The 1997 Daffodil Show was co-sponsored by the Garden Club of Danville and the Danville Parks and Recreation Department at the Danville Senior Citizens’ Center on April 9-10. The show, “Danville, A Victorian Flower,” was chaired by Carol Strange and Nan Freed, who reported 1109 blooms, 70 artistic arrangements, and 13 InterClub collections. Danville also hosted the 1996 Daffodil Show, “Grandmother’s Attic.”

The Blue Ridge Garden Club hosted the 1997 Lily Show, “Musical Arrangements,” at Washington and Lee’s University Center on June 18-19.

1997 Flower Arranging and Judging School was held on September 30-October 1 at the Woman’s Club in Richmond. Jane Dressler of Roanoke Valley Garden Club led attendees through guidelines and construction of early, mid- and late-Victorian arrangements. Jewel Lynn Delaune of the Williamsburg Garden Club discussed color and its effects on floral designs.

The Hampton Roads Garden Club hosted the 1997 Rose Show, “Bouquets to Broadway: A Tribute to Rodgers & Hammerstein.” The show was held on September 17-18 at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center with 392 stems, 75 arrangements and 114 exhibitors.

Three Chopt Garden Club hosted the 1998 Daffodil Show on April 15-16  at St. Mary’s Church in Richmond. The show titled “What’s in a Name?” included 6 InterClub collections, 157 exhibitors, 77 arrangements and 907 horticulture stems.

The Board of Directors received a request in late 1997 for GCV to co-sponsor a NALS International Lily Show in 2002 with the Potomac Lily Society and the Mid-Atlantic Lily Society. Twice in the past, GCV has collaborated on such a show, the last time in Ashland in 1975. NALS wanted a location near Dulles airport, and Genie Diller suggested Fauquier and Loudoun as possible sponsor. GCV responsibility would be to write the artistic schedule, stage it, provide all hospitality including two banquets, lunches for judges, entertainment such as house tours and, basically, attend to the nuts and bolts of putting on a successful, major international flower show. After lengthy discussions, and the unanimous conclusion that taking on a show of this scope was unrealistic for the GCV and not feasible, the request was declined.

The Flower Shows Committee decided in 1998 the word, test, must be eliminated, not only removing the word from daffodil, lily and rose collections, but also from the daffodil, lily and rose committee names. In past years, many GCV ladies did “test” for various companies or supply houses from which GCV purchased test collections. Today this practice is limited to two or three GCV members. The committee instead now chooses varieties.  The change required a change to bylaws.

Also, a new ruling by the Flower Show Committee stated, “an exhibitor is to indicate the origin of plant material used in the design with G for garden-grown flowers and F for flowers from a florist. The use of either will not affect the scale of points in judging.” Note: GCV urban legend says G carries more weight in point scoring.

The Lily Committee ruled that Orientals in artistic classes MUST be grown by the exhibiting club. “No ‘Casa Blancas’ or other late flowering Orientals are permitted because the Garden Club of Virginia is well respected, and its integrity as a garden club should be upheld.” The decision must have been controversial because it was pointed out that those in favor exceeded those in opposition.